Republican Herald

SINGULAR CIRCUMSTANCE. The Liverpool Mercury states the following as a fact, and avers that it took place near the village of Upton in Wirral, near Cheshire:—A female, of respectable appearance, with an infant of colour at her breast, entered the cottage of a labouring man, whose family consisted of a wife and several small children. The visiter was welcomed to the homely dwelling, and observing an infant in the cradle she wished to ascertain the child's age, and seemed pleased to find it correspond with her own: She then inquired by what means the family were maintained; and being informed that their only support arose from the husband's labor, with much seeming sympathy and kind feeling observed 'Suppose some friend made you a present of five hundred pounds to open a small shop, don't you think it would be the means of helping you to bring up your family?' 'Yes madam,' replied the poor woman, 'but I have no such friend;' upon which the lady took from her pocket book a five hundred pound Bank of England note, presented her with it. The astonished cottager, struck speechless by such unexpected good luck, was roused from her stupor by her benefactress requesting change for a sovereign, meaning to share it amongst the rest of the children.—Twenty shillings being a sum not often seen by the poor woman, she replied. 'O dear madam, I have not one shilling; but if you'll wait, I'll go to the village, about a quarter of a mile distant, and get it for you.'—The poor woman, in high glee made the best of her way towards Upton; but before she reached a hundred yards from her door, the generous benefactor placed her swarthy off-spring in the cradle, and made a precipitate retreat with the fair complexioned infant, leaving the poor woman to console herself, on her return, with a Mulatto child in one hand and five hundred pounds in the other.